Found a new source for writing. Holly Lisle has briefly opened her Career Survival School for Writers to new students, and it looks like a fascinating course. She’s a pro with 32 books in print, and has weathered many ups and downs in the book market.

So I signed up! I won’t start really working on it until Nanowrimo and the show I’m directing are both over in December, but it’s exciting to have it waiting for me to sink my teeth into.

Going to finish packing now…

For the past few weeks I’ve been wondering about this. I had a final interview with my writing professor, and she had a number of interesting things to say. For starters, she encouraged me to check out going into a Masters programme, and named a few. I never got all the way to a BA in anything, but a lot of places will take mature students into Masters studies without one. Something to consider for when my home considerations are less pressing, I think, but I will surely carry on the learning process whether formally or not.

The other thing she said was really an echo of what I’ve been asking myself. I know I am a writer. That’s not a question. But am I a novelist? Particularly a fantasy novelist (she has some ivory tower issues with fantasy as literature)? My prof encouraged me to take time, to explore other genres in a serious way. She recommended giving myself three years to deliberately find my place. I see her point.

I feel that right now I am exploring by learning what I can about writing novels in particular. I suppose I won’t know if it’s for me or not unless I try it for a little longer. Even selling a novel I hope wouldn’t set me in a permanent rut that wouldn’t allow for exploration. I still like taking stabs at poetry. I know I can write non-fiction, and be quite powerfully persuasive on issues that get me riled. I also know that it’s good to be stretched, to try writing things I wouldn’t be personally motivated to try. That means a writing class, when it comes right down to it. And I happen to have an incomplete correspondence course sitting on my shelf…*sigh*

It’s not that I don’t know what to do, so much as it’s hard to know what to do first.